


You Deserve This

by ununquadius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Azkaban, Gen, M/M, Post-War, Trials, war trials
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 12:26:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15972293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ununquadius/pseuds/ununquadius
Summary: After the war, Draco is in Azkaban awaiting his trial. He knows he deserves that, but apparently there’s one person who thinks he deserves the warmth of a new life.





	You Deserve This

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago but I don't know why I haven't post it!
> 
> A big thank you for cubedcoffecake for being a wonderful, fast, and meticulous beta! <3 I'm in awe at your work!!
> 
> Enjoy the fic!

Cold. That’s the only thing he can feel here. 

The cell is a four metre by four metre square. It has a small barred window with no glass that only allows in the cold and the smell of the furious ocean below.

There’s a barred door on the opposite wall from where he’s laying. He can see the cell in front of his, and if he puts his head through the bars, he can see the dark corridor and the other cells.

The occupants of the two cells in front of his are his parents. His father looks terrible. He has dark circles under his eyes and a haunted expression. He has grown a beard, and his once-pristine long hair lays dirty and disheveled on his back.

His mother tries to maintain the superior look she used to wear, but doesn’t quite manage. With her hair up in a messy bun, her eyes empty, and her dress in disarray, she looks older.

He doesn’t look good himself, but he can’t bring himself to worry about that when the cold, the hunger, and the uncertainty of what is going to happen to them are killing him.

The heavy iron door at the end of the corridor opens and the guards enter. He holds his breath, but the feeling of hopelessness doesn’t come. It must just be the human guards.

“Oi, Malfoy! You’re lucky today. You get to have a little chat with the Wizengamot--but don’t worry, we’ll keep your cell ready for you!” one of the guards laughs as he puts his father in grills and pulls him out of the cell and into the corridor.

“Lucius,” he hears his mother whisper.

“It’ll be fine,” his father says. 

The guard slaps him.

Days pass, and his father doesn’t come back. Was he kissed by a dementor? Was he executed in some other way? Is he free? They don’t know.

“It’s your turn, bitch!” a guard says to his mother one day.

They leave with her. He doesn’t hear about her anymore. He asks the guards about them, about his parents, but they mock him, curse him, and laugh at him.

‘I deserve this. I almost killed Bell, and Weasley, and Dumbledore. I deserve this and worse,’ he thinks every day.

He doesn’t know what day it is when the guards come up to his cell in a far better mood than he’s used to. 

“What do you want?” he asks, trying to sound as if he doesn’t care--but he does. He’s terrified and cold. Much too cold. 

“We’ve brought you a gift!” one of the men smirks.

“We’re not soulless, you see?” says the other.

‘They’re hiding something. They know something they’re not telling me,’ he thinks. He’s so scared.

“So, what do you want your last meal to be, sonny?” asks the first man, almost managing to sound as if he cares about Draco.

“Fuck off!” he says through clenched teeth.

The men laugh and leave.

‘So I’m going to die,’ he thinks. ‘Death… death must be better than this. Death must be warmer.’ Tears drop from his eyes as he wraps himself up in his thin robes and torn blanket.

He’d wanted to do so many things with his life! When he was young, he’d dreamed of being a professional quidditch player. As he grew he wanted to be like his father: important and respected. Then he pictured his future as a Potions Master. Even when all he could see ahead was the darkness of being a Death Eater, he wanted to keep his family out of harm.

He knows he isn’t a good person. He knows he deserves this. But he wants the chance to redeem himself. He wants a life. He never had the chance to do so many things… even to tell Potter that he didn’t hate him. 

He’s trembling in his blanket when the guards come the next day.

“Get up, scum!” the guard says.

He gets up and walks to his cell door where they put him in cuffs. He is forced outside, and into a boat. He tries to enjoy the trip--his last trip. His last time seeing the sun, feeling the breeze, smelling the sea. He tries, but the fear in his chest don’t allow him to enjoy his last day.

He is apparated to the Ministry and locked up in another cell. At least this cell is cleaner than the one in Azkaban. 

He is left there until the next day, when he’s guided to the courtroom and chained to a chair in the middle of the room.

The wizards and witches filling the room are whispering to each other and looking at him as if he were a worm. The Wizengamot isn’t here yet.

His eyes travel for the room in search of at least one familiar face, but he sees none. He’s alone.

“There? Don’t you prefer these chairs here?” he hears a voice speak over the whispers. His heart jumps. If Weasley is here, that means Potter and Granger are here too.

He looks in the direction of the voice and sees them. The three of them are there, in the first row. Potter's looking at him while the other two whisper to each other. 

‘So you came to enjoy the show, did you?’ he thinks with bitterness.

He doesn’t think he has a say in his trial. The guards were convinced that he was to be killed. Maybe this is his last time to apologize for his mistakes and not leave like this world the git he used to be.

He looks straight at Potter, who is still staring at him, and mouths ‘I’m sorry.’ He hopes that’s enough, because he doesn’t have the chance to say anything else before the Wizengamot is entering the room. Potter nods at him and then looks away.

As he’d suspected, the witches and wizards don’t waste a second by giving him a chance to defend himself; he is here to be kissed by a dementor. His crimes are too grave for anything more merciful. The only mercy he’s receiving is the sight of his parents before the kiss. 

‘They’re alive,’ he thinks. 

Two guards enter the room with his parents, who look fine apart from the worried expressions on their faces and the tears in their eyes.

“Make the dementor come, Thomson,” says one of the wizards.

“NO!” shouts his mother.

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” his father cries.

“WAIT!” an unexpected voice says. 

Potter.

The whole room quiets and looks at Potter.

“Wait,” he says again. “You can’t do that”.

“Mister Potter, this boy is a Death Eater and should be put down for his crimes as an example to the youth,” says a witch.

“You’re putting him down to punish his parents, not him. You let Lucius Malfoy go with only a few months of house arrest because you want his money to keep coming your way. You’re punishing his son instead to appease the people who protested that his sentence was too light,” Potter says, looking defiantly at the judges.

“This boy almost murdered Albus Dumbledore!” an old wizard cries.

He can only stare as the two fronts clash.

“Oh, yeah? Were you there when he almost kill Dumbledore?” Potter asks.

“No, but everybody know…”

“I was,” Potter interrupted. “I was there that night and saw how Draco put his wand down when Dumbledore offered him a way out. I was there when Draco lied to Bellatrix Lestrange about my and my friends’ identities. He tried to help his family, but was brave enough to try and save us as well. Don’t punish him for crimes he didn’t commit.”

Hearing his name after all this time, and in Potter’s mouth, is like a balsam to Draco’s heart. It means he’s pardoned, he has a chance, he isn’t just another Death Eater, another prisoner of Azkaban. He’s Draco. 

Draco thinks that Potter is stretching the truth a bit too much, but he isn’t about to complain.

“The dementor is here,” Thomson says.

Panic rushes inside Draco. He looks at his parents and pleads at Potter with his eyes. 

“The decision has been made,” the judge says.

“Wait!” Potter says. “If you refuse to reconsider the charges against him, I ask for his release as a personal favour. I killed Voldemort: I ask for this.”

It’s not in character of Potter to gloat about his achievements, but maybe the fame that comes with being the Saviour of the Wizarding World has changed him.

Potter walks toward him until he’s beside him, and then he puts a hand on his shoulder. Draco stares at him like he’s going crazy.

“You can’t kill him, because he’s my boyfriend,” Potter says, gripping his shoulder tightly as he says the word boyfriend.

Draco understands the message and tries not to look too surprised, but how can he not? 

The room explodes in excited whispering at this information. The Chosen One is gay and in love with a Death Eater? The journalists in the room hastily begin to take notes about the tragic love story between the Saviour of the light and a servant of the dark. The sceptic ones murmur about how the Malfoys managed to cast an Imperius on Potter, because it’s impossible that the Boy-Who-Lived is telling the truth. The homophobic ones are looking at them with distaste. 

“Silence!” exclaimes a Wizengamot witch. “If this is true, how come we haven’t heard anything about it before now?”

“I don’t like to talk about my private life,” Potter says. 

The room quiets. They can’t argue that, because Potter doesn’t ever talk about himself. Vague information about his defeat of You Know Who is the most information Potter has shared since the war. 

‘Why do you care so much about me all of a sudden?’ Draco wants to shout at Potter. 

The wizards and witches of the Wizengamot talk among themselves for a long time., When they announce that they have come to an agreement, they declare that, “In consideration of how much Mr. Potter has lost in the war, Mr. Malfoy has been pardoned. You should thank your boyfriend for your life.”

In that moment he knows that they’re not convinced. They’re not sure if they are doing the right thing listening to Potter, so the two will have to play the part. That’s what they want; to see them fail, to see him insult Potter, to see themselves proved right. Well, they’re going to be disappointed. If he has to go so far as to marry Potter, he will. ‘Not that I’d complain about that,’ he thinks. 

Potter knows, too. They look at each other. Draco is released from the chains and hugs Potter before the other boy can act. 

“This is the only thing that came to your mind, Potter?” he whispers in his ear. Even now, he’s got to be a bit of a git, or he wouldn’t be Draco. 

“If you want I can say I lied,” Potter whispers back. 

“No, I like it, love,” he says with a smirk. 

“We’ll have to play the part,” Potter warns. 

“I can’t complain. You?” his heart is beating fast now, because he wants Potter to say no, that he’d like this too. 

“Neither, love,” Potter says.

They end the hug, but Potter holds his hand with a growing smile. His parents and Potter’s friends approach them.

“I’m so glad you’re alright, sweetheart,” his mother says, hugging him. 

“We should leave,” his father says. 

They’re in the lift, the six of them, when he can’t bear it anymore. “Why? Why did you save me?” he asks.

“Because you deserve it. You’ve done awful things, but you tried to save us too, and you didn’t want to kill Dumbledore. We’ve all got both good and bad in us. You deserve a second chance.”

“Thanks,” he says.

He doesn’t believe Potter, but he wants to. He’ll try to deserve this. 

“This is a lie, right? You’re not together,” his father suddenly asks. 

Potter is still holding his hand, and he wants to tell his father that no, this isn’t a lie, because he had wanted this for years now. But he knows that isn’t true. Potter has saved him because he’s an idiotic Gryffindor that has to save people so he can sleep at night. He opens his mouth to say so, but Potter speaks first.

“If you don’t mind, Draco, I’d say this is true.”

“I don’t mind.”

 

Maybe life will be warmer now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Don't forget to leave comments and kudos!! <3


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